The Little Foxes

In Alabama the Hubbard family is looking for capital to build a cotton mill. Regina Giddens talks her brothers Oscar and Ben into the venture, then learns they have stolen the bonds of her sick husband Horace. When she tries to use that as leverage he refuses to cooperate. During his heart attack she withholds his medicine and watches. She ends up wealthy and alone, her daughter Alexandra having left the house. William Wyler directed, from Lillian Hellman's 1939 play. Bette Davis plays Regina, Herbert Marshall plays Horace and Teresa Wright plays Alexandra. Part of the cast had played the same roles on Broadway. Tallulah Bankhead had created the part on stage; Wyler insisted on Davis. The two fought throughout. Davis later said she was a nervous wreck because her favourite and most admired director was fighting her every inch of the way. The film took nine Academy Award nominations and won none. Davis's Regina placed 43rd on the American Film Institute's 2003 list of the greatest screen villains. Who it is for: viewers who like power struggles inside a family and want one of Davis's coldest performances. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a sympathetic character. Almost everyone here is working an angle and the film rescues nobody.